Coffee Mug Cake

Hello! So for my final post I decided to try another recipe. I decided on making a little cake in a coffee mug. I see them on Pinterest all the time and I wanted to see if it would actually work. And it did! So look below on how to make a Mandarin Orange Cake in a coffee mug.

Materials:

• 1 box Angel food cake mix
• 1 box orange cake mix
• Non-stick spray
• Water
• 1 can of mandarin oranges
• Cool whip

Steps:

1. Mix the two cake mixes together in a gallon Ziploc bag and shake it to mix the powders together.
   
2. Coat the inside of the mug with the non-stick spray.
3. Put 3 tablespoons of the cake mix into the mug. Then add 2 tablespoons of water and mix it together. Finally add a few mandarin oranges and mix it again.
4. Put the mug in the microwave for 50 seconds on high.
   
5. When the cake is cooled, add a few extra oranges and top it off with some cool whip.  
   
    Ta-da! This is the final product! It turned out pretty well. The cake was light and fluffy and the oranges were a nice twist from traditional cakes. This recipe is great for when you don't want to make an entire cake. It's also super easy to make, it took me less than 5 minutes to make this recipe. It makes for the perfect treat when you're craving something sweet!

Disney Silhouette

Hello! This weekend I decided I would try to actually find a craft this time, and not just a recipe. I wanted to find a project that was cheap and easy to do, and I found one! I think this would be especially perfect if you were looking to decorate the walls of a child's bedroom. It's easy and quick to make, and something that a child (or avid Disney fan) would love. Look below on how to make a Disney silhouette!

Materials:

• Colored printer paper
• White printer paper
• Scissors
• Sharpies

Steps:

1. The first step is to decide on which Disney character you want a silhouette of. I decided to do Peter Pan because my younger sister is a huge fan of that movie. All I did was go to google, type in Peter Pan silhouette, save the image I wanted to my computer, and printed it out on the colored paper.
   
2. Next I carefully cut out the image and glued it to the white printer paper. I wrote a quote in sharpie and then I was done!
   

This is the final product. It's simple and cute, and something I definitely think a child would love in their room. I plan on giving this to my sister to put on her wall since she's such a huge Peter Pan fan. Obviously you can pick any Disney character you like and come up with some kind of quote, or use one from the movie. You could also make this a little more fancy by putting it in a frame and then hanging it on the wall. But overall, this makes for a cute craft you could make for someone.



Pineapple Angel Food Cake

Hello! This past weekend I went home for Easter and my mom and I made one of our favorite desserts: Pineapple Angel Food Cake! This recipe is so easy and quick to make, and it's super delicious! Look below on how to make this awesome cake!

Materials:

• Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake Mix
• 1 can of crushed pineapple

Steps:

1. Mix the angel food mix and crushed pineapple together, juice and all.
2. Stick it in the oven to bake! It's really that easy.

This is seriously soooo good. It's light and fluffy, and the pineapple gives it a tangy taste. It's really quite refreshing for a cake. My family devoured the entire pan within two days. This is so easy to make and it's always a huge hit with whoever I share it with. So if you're looking for a new cake recipe, this is the one to try out!

Picture Frame

Hello! This weekend my sorority had their annual Mom's Day. It was a really fun day where all the girls got to bring their moms and spend the day together. There was food, games, and the best part of it all, a craft! Everyone got to have a picture frame and decorate it however they wanted. I'll show you below how I decorated mine!

Materials:

• Picture frame (I think it was a 5x7 frame but I'm not entirely sure)
• Foam stickers
• Traceable letters
• Glue
• Colored paper

I didn't really feel like it was necessary to add steps for this project because you can design the frame however you want. Some people decorated the outside of the frame to put a picture in it later, but I just designed a piece of paper to stick in the frame. I used foam stickers in the corners and traced letters and cut them out to spell Prim Roses. It's pretty simple, but I think it's cute. It was also super cheap because there was enough supplies for every girl and her mom to make one. It made for a fun and easy craft to make with my mom that day.

Puppy Chow

Hello! So this weekend's project is actually something I made at home while I was on Spring break. I was able to bring some back with me and my roommate and I devoured all of it within a couple days. It was so good and I'll probably make another batch here soon because it was such a hit. Look below on how to make a batch of Puppy Chow!

Materials:

• Large bowl
• Quart size sauce pan
• Gallon sized resealable plastic bags
• Spatula
• 9 cups of Chex cereal
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Steps:

1. Measure out the cereal into the large bowl and set it aside.
2. Next, put the chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter into the sauce pan and put it on low heat. Stir constantly until everything is completely melted. (Note: If you don't want it to taste too peanut buttery, you can use less than the recommend amount.)
3. Once it's melted, pour in the vanilla and stir.
4. Then immediately pour the mixture over the Chex cereal and use the spatula to stir the cereal until it's all evenly coated.
5. Next, pour some of the cereal into the plastic bag. Don't pour all of it because then when the powdered sugar is put in with it, it won't evenly distribute it on the cereal. After the cereal is in the bag, add the powdered sugar and shake the bag until all the cereal is coated.
6. Pour the cereal onto wax paper to cool and finish coating the rest of the cereal.

Ta-da! This is the finished project. You can see that I learned the hard way about having too much cereal and not enough room or powdered sugar for it to be evenly coated. The top batch that is white is how it should look in the end. But, all of it tasted great so I'd say it was a success. This makes for a great snack that you can take with you and the recipe makes a ton of it so you can share with friends and family! I hope you enjoy!



Mini Churro Bites

Welcome back from spring break! I hope you all had a great one! I spent most of my time cuddling with my dogs and binge watching shows on MTV, so I'd say it was pretty successful. I also spent some time cooking which brings me to this week's Pinterest project. Mini Churro Bites! These were super easy to make and even kind of fun! I tried getting my sister to help me make them, but she refused. She sure enjoyed eating the finished project though. Look below on how to make these awesome little churro bites!

Materials:

• 1 Sara Lee Angel Food Cake
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup cinnamon
• Vegetable oil
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Medium sized bowl
• Wax paper
• Fork
• Sharp knife

Steps:

1. Let your angel food cake thaw on the counter for about ten minutes. When it's a little soft, cut them into bite sized pieces. Keep the pieces on a plate and set up some wax paper to place the churros on once they're done. (Note: I'm not a baking guru and I didn't know that angel food cake and pound cake is pretty much the same thing so don't be confused if you can't find a bread marked just angel food cake. Pound cake is the same and will work just fine. Shout out to my mom for explaining this to me.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in the medium sized bowl and set aside.
   
3. Pour vegetable oil into a large saucepan and put it on low medium heat. When the oil is bubbling, place two bite sized pieces into it and fry until golden brown. I just used a fork to flip them and take them out of the oil. You can do more at a time if you're talented, but I'm not and I realized that I could only do two at a time without letting the others in the oil burn. With that being said, it took awhile to fry all of them.
4. As soon as you take them out of the oil, toss them in the sugar and cinnamon mix and roll them around. Use the fork to take them out and place the finished ones on the wax paper.
5. When they're all finally finished, and I think it took me at least a good half hour to do them all, you can put some icing on it. Mix the powdered sugar and milk in a little bowl and stir. You may need to add an extra splash of milk to make the liquid thinner. Then take a spoon and drizzle it all over the churro bites.
   

Ta-da! You're all done! These were a hit with my family and they couldn't wait for me to make them again. This recipe was really easy and the most time consuming part is frying them. If you have someone to help you I'm sure it would go a lot faster. But it was fun to make and I had a good time doing it. I hope this recipe is helpful for anyone wanting to make something sweet! 

Picture Frame

Hello! The project I chose this weekend was actually something I made for my sister this past Christmas. It was super easy to make, just a bit time consuming. It was super cute and she absolutely loved it. Look below to see how I decorated this adorable picture frame!

Materials:

• Wooden picture frame (Walmart, $2)
• Acrylic paint (Walmart, 50 cents per bottle)
• Paint brushes (Walmart, $3)
• Plastic jewels (Walmart, $5) 
• Paper plate
• Cup of water
• Paper towels

Steps:

1.  Get all your supplies out. Get a glass of warm water to wash the brushes off and paper towel to dry them. Use the paper plate to put the paint on. The wooden frame I found at Walmart was back in the craft section. It was only a couple bucks so you can decorate multiple ones for very cheap.
   
   
   
   
   
2. I started off by painting the top half of the frame light blue. I painted the bottom half of it this really pretty teal color I found. After that, I let the frame dry for about 20 minutes.
3. After it was finally dried, I made a pattern out of the sparkly plastic jewels to put on it. I first tried hot gluing the jewels on, but it was too hard to do that for the smaller ones and the glue over spilled onto the frame making it look messy. Instead I found that just painting the back of the jewels and pressing them onto the frame worked fine. Only a couple times they fell off and I had to stick them back on. It took about three hours to put all of the jewels on. Luckily after that, it was done.  
   

This was the final product. I printed out a picture of my sister and I to stick in it and it was finally done. She loved it and now it sits in her room on her shelf so she sees it every day. This project was really fun and easy to do, it just took a long time to stick all of the jewels on. This is an easy craft you can make for anyone and it's perfect for a birthday or Christmas gift!

Frozen Yogurt Dots

Hello! This weekend instead of doing a craft, I found a super easy snack to make that is great for when you're on the go. The best part of it is that it only takes one ingredient. It's super easy, quick, and can be prepared the night before. Look below on how to make these simple frozen yogurt dots.

Materials:

• Yogurt of your choice (I did a strawberry mango Yoplait yogurt)
• Ziploc baggies
• Paper plate

Steps:

1. Scoop yogurt into the Ziploc baggie.
   
2. Cut a small hole in the corner of the baggie.
   
3. Make dots of yogurt all around paper plate.
   
4. Place dots in the refrigerator for about an hour, but it can be longer. 
5. Eat the dots!
   

That's all there is to it! You can place them in a baggie or cup for on the go, or place them with an ice pack in a lunch box for later. They're simple and make eating yogurt a little more fun! You can have different flavors, or just stick to one. This is super easy and cheap to make. This is a great little frozen treat to have!

Super Valentines

Happy late Valentine's Day! The project I did this weekend of course had to go with the Valentines theme and I thought there was nothing better than making actual valentines! For my sisterhood with Prim Roses, we did a throwback elementary style party. Everyone decorated boxes and handed out valentines. I wanted to be a bit more creative than just buying the generic kind and passing those out, so I looked to Pinterest and found a ton of adorable valentine ideas! I found one where they put capes on lollipops to look like superheroes! It was my favorite one, so I went with it. Look below on how to make Super Valentines!

Materials:

• Package of Dum-Dums (I got the 200 count and it was about $6)
• Cardstock paper (2 packages at Walmart, $6 total)
• Pen
• Hole puncher
• Scissors

Steps:

1. First, get out the cardstock you bought. I found Valentine's Day themed ones for $3 each at Walmart so I went with that. You could also just get plain white and decorate them yourselves if you want, but I went the easier route.
    
   
2. Next you're going to trace the shape of a cape onto the paper. I just free handed it, but if you wanted to be precise I'm sure you could find a stencil somewhere. I filled up the entire page so I wouldn't waste any of the paper. This is also the time to write your little note on the cape. You can see that I went with "Have a SUPER Valentine's Day".
   
3. After you have your note written on them, it's time to cut them out. When that's finished, punch holes towards the top of the cape. Be careful not to punch a hole where the words are!
   
4. When that's done, you just slide them onto the Dum-Dum and you're done!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

These were a hit with all the girls! They all loved them! I also think this is a perfect valentine to make for guys and girls. I made 34 of them total, so I had a ton of suckers and cardstock left over. It was about $12 to make total. It would have been less if I bought the smaller bag of Dum-Dums, but I wanted to have leftover, so you could make these for a lot less. Also, you can use any brand of sucker for this, just make sure with whichever one you choose to make the capes proportional to them. Since I used Dum-Dums, I had to make the capes pretty small. But, overall I'd say these were a big success!

"Sharpie" Mug

Hello! This weekend I did a super easy project that I have seen all over Pinterst. It's the famous Sharpie mug! But, before I did it, I looked up some facts about it. I'm happy I did because I found out that if you just use a sharpie, it will most likely end up washing off. Instead, I just used paint markers. It worked just fine and hasn't washed off yet. Look below for steps on how to make it!

Materials

• Mug, preferably white (Walmart, $3)
• Paint markers (Walmart, a couple bucks per marker I think) 

Steps

1. First, get however many colors you want. I just used one color for mine. The brand of marker I got was Painters in the color violet. I bought this item awhile ago and I just had it laying around, but I got it at Walmart for a couple bucks I think. Walmart actually has quite a few colors to choose from so you can use as many as you want.
2. Paint whatever design you want! I painted a cat face on mine and gave it to my roommate because she loves cats. Be careful not to smudge anything, but if you do, it can be wiped off easily and repainted. That's the nice part about them being paint markers.
3. Once you're done painting, just stick it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees and you're done! You should be able to wash it and the paint shouldn't come off. Here is my final product.

 

This project is super easy, super cute, and affordable! It was only about $6 total. And this is perfect for any coffee or tea drinker! Happy crafting! 

Canvas Painting

Hello! This project I did this weekend was super easy and super cheap. It took only a couple hours to make, but that was only because of the drying time for the paint. I painted a canvas to give to my little sister for her birthday because I'm on a budget and it's a cute and meaningful gift. Look to the steps below on how to create this simple gift for anyone!

Supplies

• Canvas (can get a package of 3 for about $5 at Walmart)
• Acrylic paint (can get from Walmart for 50 cents each)
• Paper plates
• Paint brushes (can get a package from Walmart for about $4 I think)
• Glass or plastic cup of warm water to rinse paint brushes
• Paper towel

Steps

1. The first step is to paint the canvas black. I did three coats of black paint because I didn't want any of the white peeking through.
   
2. The next step is to get out your paint, paper plates, paper towels, and grab a glass or plastic cup of warm water.
   
   
   
   
3. There are all kinds of things you can paint or different themes to go with, but the one I found on Pinterest was themed from the show "Friends". I really liked this idea because my sister and I watched this show a lot so it kind of became our thing. The letters are supposed to be different sized and have a bit of a childish look to them. I used the smallest paint brush there was to paint the letters. Everything was free handed. I really liked how it turned out and my sister loved it!
   

 

This was really simples to make, it only took about 2 and a half hours (mainly because of waiting for the paint to dry), and it was only about $11 to make. Plus I have extra canvases to paint different designs if I want. I like very much how this one turned out!

 

Hello Pinteresters! So this project I did was actually something I made over the summer when I was really excited about coming to Truman and becoming a Bulldog. I found this pin on Pinterest for screen printing a t-shirt and I thought it would be really difficult, but it turned out to be pretty simple. The longest part of this project is just letting the paint dry on the shirt for three days before you wash it. Anyways, here are the items you need to make your very own screen printed t-shirt.

• Plain t-shirt (Amazon, $8)
• Fabric paint (Walmart, depending on how many colors you get, I used 2 colors so about $5)
• Freezer paper (Walmart, $6)
• Iron
• Exacto knife (I was able to just use regular scissors though)
• Paint brushes (Walmart, $2)
• Pencil
• Marker
• Printer paper
• Tweezers

1. Okay, so the first step is to draw your design of whatever you want on the printer paper with a pencil. I decided to go with the word bulldogs inside a heart. (I didn't take pictures of the process so sorry if this one is a little difficult to follow along with.)
2. After you have your design, trace it with a marker onto the freezer paper. Be sure to draw on the side that is not shiny.
3. This is the part where you cut out your design. You can use an exacto knife, but I was able to do mine with just normal scissors. If you have small letters or designs in your drawing though, I suggest using the exacto knife. Make sure to save all of the pieces of your design because you might need all of them.
4. After you have all of your pieces cut out, put your shirt on an ironing board. Place your cut out pieces of freezer paper onto the shirt and arrange them how you like. Try to get all the spacing even because after the next step there is no going back. Be sure to smooth out any wrinkles on the shirt where you design is going to be.
5. This is the part where you iron the freezer paper onto the shirt. Make sure the shiny side is down. Be sure not to drag the iron as if you were ironing a normal shirt, but simply place the iron on one spot for a couple seconds and then move to another spot until all the paper is stuck to the shirt. Use a medium heat setting for all of this.
6. Once all the paper is securely ironed on, you can begin painting. I painted the background purple and did two coats of it. Do not let the paint dry in between coats.
7. Before the paint completely dries, peel off the letters. This is where the tweezers come in handy. You can peel them off easily without messing up your design.
8. After this, all that is left is to let the shirt dry. I think the paint bottle said to let it dry for 72 hours so I left it flat on a table for three days before I washed it. (None of the paint came off at all after washing.)

 

This was my final product! The heart was a little lopsided because I free handed it, so I would recommend using a stencil. Other than that I'm pretty happy with how this shirt turned out! It also wasn't too bad for $21. Plus, if I make another shirt, I already have the paint and freezer paper so all I would need is another shirt. I think it's a pretty good deal! I'm proud how well this turned out for my first time!

Welcome!

Hello fellow Pinteresters! Or if you've never experienced the wonderful world of Pinterest, this blog is going to consist of me trying out some crafts, maybe a few easy recipes, and anything else I might find to be interesting. I'll include the materials I need for things, the steps to making it, how long it takes to actually make, and if the project was indeed a success or an epic Pinterest fail. I'm not a crafting expert, but I hope this blog will be helpful for anyone who feels like trying out an easy craft or new recipe. Be on the lookout for future posts! Happy crafting!